Thought about using Windows 10 or uBuntu on the AP42. Both are easily available. But Windows is too bloated, way too chatty, and difficult/impossible to tame. uBuntu is great but requires more firewall/routing/iptable knowledge than I currently have. Would prefer a simplier solution that also offers complex configurations when needed. Hense pfsense.

Did I come to the right place, or are you bored? (hahaha) Sorry, old joke b/c I'm old :) :)

Thought about using Windows 10 or uBuntu on the AP42. Both are easily available. But Windows is too bloated, way too chatty, and difficult/impossible to tame. uBuntu is great but requires more firewall/routing/iptable knowledge than I currently have. Would prefer a simplier solution that also offers complex configurations when needed. Hense pfsense.

Did I come to the right place, or are you bored? (hahaha) Sorry, old joke b/c I'm old :) :)

You don't come out and say it but I'm assuming you already bought the AP42 and are trying to figure out what to do with it. I personally think trying to get pfsense running on it will be more trouble than its worth because it's a bad hardware selection for the application (especially with a USB network adapter). It's free to try, but on that hardware you'd probably have better luck with linux based firewall.

You don't come out and say it but I'm assuming you already bought the AP42 and are trying to figure out what to do with it. I personally think trying to get pfsense running on it will be more trouble than its worth because it's a bad hardware selection for the application (especially with a USB network adapter). It's free to try, but on that hardware you'd probably have better luck with linux based firewall.

Partially true. Didn't even think about using specialized hardware for this minimalist job. intranet <-> Internet traffic is small (max 3M/1Mbps). intranet<->intranet is 99.999% (Gbps+).

Never expected basic USB booting issues on this AP42. Assumed Intel based, running Win10 fairly well == AP42 more than enough + pfsense that works on an even lighter platform (Atom) == AP42 is more than adequate for my needs.

Clarifications: I bought the AP42 after a cursory hardware/software review (including pfsense). The Gigabit traffic is not seen by the AP42 because it's isolated locally to the primary DD-WRT router network. So IMHO 10Mbps AP42 interfaces is adequate (Gbe a nice overkill). Yes/No?

Back to the basic problem - booting the pfsense USB (built with rufus 2.17)

The USB is not recognized by the BIOS, even in legacy boot mode. Tried building on uBuntu with dd. Same issue. Downloaded again, same issue. Seems I'm overlooking something very basic.

I was able to boot a rufus built OPNsense img so it must be something else I'm missing.